For decades, a reliable internet connection has been a luxury in parts of rural Ascension Parish. That’s starting to change.
Local provider REV is accelerating efforts to expand high-speed internet access in underserved communities, drawing on a mix of federal funding and private investment to get there.
REV is targeting areas including Donaldsonville, Geismar and Darrow—places identified as lacking reliable broadband under federal guidelines.
Much of the expansion is tied to the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, known as BEAD, which helps fund connections in hard-to-reach areas. Still, private dollars are doing much of the heavy lifting in Ascension Parish.
Jeremy Theriot, REV’s director of community relations and business development, says 204 locations across Donaldsonville, Geismar and Darrow were identified as underserved. He explains that the designation depends on what speeds a location can access. In 2019, broadband was defined as 25 Mbps download by 3 Mbps upload. The FCC has since raised that threshold to 100 Mbps by 20 Mbps.
“This was redefined, really around Covid, because at that time, everybody was remote working,” Theriot recalls. “You needed upload speeds that were comparable to your download speeds, because if you’re on Zoom, or you’re on Teams, you need that fast upload speed to be able to use your camera.”
Of those 204 locations, BEAD funding covers 47. REV is using private capital to connect the remaining 157.
“It’s a once in a generation investment,” REV CEO Joshua Descant says of the BEAD program. “It takes public, private partnership to bring a program like that to fruition. Louisiana led the pack nationally. It has the potential to really transform rural communities across America and especially Louisiana.”
Geography remains one of the biggest hurdles. Rural Louisiana’s landscape—marked by waterways, flood-prone terrain and long distances between homes—complicates construction.
“It’s that distance between locations,” Theriot says, noting that some neighbors can be “a mile” apart, driving up the cost and complexity of laying fiber.
Water is another obstacle. “I think it’s like 50% of our surface area is water,” Descant says. “So that’s one of our biggest challenges.”
Despite those challenges, Ascension Parish has emerged as a leader in rural connectivity statewide, particularly on the east side, where fiber infrastructure was built more than two decades ago. The current expansion into western and river-adjacent areas is expected to help close that gap while supporting continued population and industrial growth.
Descant says high-speed internet has become a key economic driver. “We’re a part of the reason why Ascension Parish is attractive to those industries,” he says, pointing to the role reliable fiber networks play in supporting business investment, telehealth and education access.
Construction timelines will vary depending on permitting, environmental reviews and weather. Descant expects shovels in the ground within the next few months.
For rural residents and businesses, the buildout could be transformative.
“In a lot of these communities, it’s going to be their first opportunity to have high-speed, broadband fiber Internet. It’s like the new four-lane highway community,” Descant says. “We know from experience in Ascension Parish that when you have resilient infrastructure like that property values rise and businesses have less reasons to relocate.”
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